When she joined the Immigrants’ Assistance Center as a 23-year-old secretary, Helena DaSilva Hughes never imagined she would spend the next 39 years of her life there.
At the time, DaSilva Hughes was studying computer programming at Newbury College. After joining the IAC, she quickly realized that she cared much more about business administration and immigration law than she did about numbers. She switched her fields of study and threw herself into immigration advocacy without looking back.
A nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of immigrants in New Bedford, the IAC works to fulfill people’s basic needs such as food and shelter while also guiding them through the citizenship application process and helping them navigate everything from finances to jobs to learning English. Established in 1971, the IAC emphasizes the importance of cultural identity and community, providing clients with a safe space to seek support.
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DaSilva Hughes, who is now IAC president and CEO, views her work as her life’s mission. She prides herself on shaping the organization into an empathetic, community-oriented place. Her staff collectively speaks six languages, and each member of the team has either immigrated to the U.S. or holds a personal connection to immigration.
DaSilva Hughes herself emigrated from Portugal at the age of 10. She watched her parents’ work day and night to provide for her and her six siblings. Now, she desires to better the lives of not only New Bedford’s immigrants but also immigrants around the country.
DaSilva Hughes has built connections with many organizations across New Bedford, such as the New Bedford Public Schools, YWCA, PACE, North Star, and many others. At the start of the pandemic, she even launched her own TV show on the Portuguese channel, Channel 93. Her broadcasts currently reach 87 towns and cities across Massachusetts.
In addition to her immigration advocacy at the local, state, and federal level, DaSilva Hughes co-founded the Our Sisters School, a middle school for low-income girls in the New Bedford area. She also serves as a trustee for Southcoast Health System and is a board member for the New Bedford Economic Development Council, the New Bedford Workforce Investment Board, and the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee and Advocacy Coalition. Previously, she served on the Governor’s Advisory Council on Immigrants and Refugees and then-Attorney General Maura Healey’s Advisory Council on New Americans.
Her work has been recognized by the president of Portugal, who bestowed her with the Order of Merit, commander level. She has also received the Cape Verdean Association’s International Women Recognition Award, YWCA’s Woman of Distinction Award, “Voice of the Immigrant” Outstanding Citizen Award, SouthCoast Woman of the Year, Portuguese American Women’s Association Woman of the Year, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Legislative Heritage Award.
In an interview with The New Bedford Light, DaSilva Hughes reflected on almost four decades of working at the IAC, her personal immigration journey, and her deep passion for the work to which she has dedicated her life.
The New Bedford Light: What is your favorite part of the work that you do?
Helena DaSilva Hughes: Our citizenship ceremonies are the most important and the most powerful ceremonies I’ve ever attended. I became a U.S. citizen in 1980, and every time we have a citizenship ceremony, it brings me back to that time. It can be a very rocky road when you’re in the process for citizenship, and just seeing their faces and the tears and their happiness at these ceremonies is so powerful. It’s overwhelming. It’s the best feeling ever. There are certain things that happen in this organization that give me energy to keep going, and that is definitely an energy booster.
Every six months we have citizenship swearing in at the Immigrants’ Assistance Center, so our classroom becomes a courtroom. Judge Raffi Yessayan, who’s an immigrant from Lebanon, comes in. He’s a superior court judge, and he presides over the ceremony. The last ceremony we had was in May, and we had 26 people from 12 different countries, and then we registered them to vote. I would say the mission of the organization is integration. The only real way people integrate is when they become U.S. citizens because they are no longer in that anxiety of [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] coming to pick them up.
NBL: You were 10 when you came to the U.S. Do you remember anything from living in Portugal before then?
HDH: I lived the first 10 years of my life in Portugal under dictatorship, under the [Antonio de Oliveira] Salazar regime. I remember saluting the dictator in school. I remember people afraid of speaking against the government, because of the secret police. Your parents, your family might disappear. I remember adults having conversations and kids walking in and everybody stopping because they didn’t want the kids to hear. I remember the fear that people had. People were not allowed to vote if they didn’t have property. My parents never owned property. My dad was a shoemaker. My mom was a seamstress. I always had nice shoes and cute clothes my mother made, but we were poor. With seven kids, it was very, very tough.
NBL: How did your family decide to come to the U.S.?
HDH: My father came because his sister met her husband, who was an American citizen. After they got married, they moved back to the United States. My aunt petitioned for my father to come to the U.S. They had nine siblings, but my father was the one with the most kids. So my dad came to the U.S. and he was here for about a year-and-a-half before he petitioned for my mom and us seven kids.
I remember him writing letters to my mom and sending money back to support us. I remember waiting for the mailman for the letters and writing little notes to my dad. We missed him tremendously when he emigrated without us, but he came so he could raise enough money so he could send for his family.
These are the things that happened and shaped me, that made my experience here at the center relate to every single person — the children, the families and the elders. I look at them as my family, and I can relate. I’d say that that is the reason we have a staff that’s been around for many years, is because I think we all can see ourselves in our clients.
NBL: What was it like to move countries at age 10?
HDH: [When you] immigrate to a country, the culture is different. The language is different. Everything is very different. For me as a kid who came here at 10 years old, I came to a country where I saw my dad working nights, my mom working day time. I’m one of seven siblings, and I’m the oldest.
I look at myself when I went to the New Bedford Public School, and … being a kid who came to the United States and didn’t speak a word of English. I was bullied in school and people made fun of me because I couldn’t speak English. Maybe when I started learning, I had a very heavy accent. People would laugh. I dressed a little different. I was afraid because of the constant bullying that happened. When [the IAC goes] to the New Bedford Public Schools, I get it. Even back then as an immigrant, I was looked at as though I wasn’t even going to graduate. That was the mentality that [people] had. I hate to say it, but this is still happening.
NBL: How did your family’s experience shape the work you do at the IAC?
HDH: My parents emigrated to give us a better life. Everything I do is always remembering that my father sacrificed — my parents sacrificed — to come to this country, that I have an obligation to my parents to make sure their immigration was not in vain. I think that’s probably why I’ve been here for 39 years, because I really feel that I live the mission of this organization every day. I look at the kids. I put myself in their positions. I look at parents, clients who come in and work two or three jobs. I know my dad worked nighttimes and worked double shifts. My mom worked, too. I understand our elders [at the IAC]. My grandmother was illiterate. She didn’t know how to write her name. My father had a fourth-grade education. I think my mom had a sixth-grade education, which was unheard of back then. That’s a lot of education.
NBL: Your work sounds like it can be both very fulfilling and very challenging. What motivates you?
HDH: Everybody has a hero. My father still drives me. He passed away about 12 years ago, and I think about him every day. What drives me to keep doing this is my father and the sacrifices he made to come to this country. As an immigrant in his early 30s with seven children, he had the responsibility of coming to a country where he did not understand the language, and he worked so hard for us to have a better life. Everything I do is with him in mind. Everything I do is for him.
NBL: You mentioned working with the New Bedford Schools. How have you been able to build partnerships through the school system?
HDH: About 10 years ago, the New Bedford Public Schools were not performing well and were in jeopardy of being taken over by the state. New Bedford High got a turnaround grant. With the turnaround grant, they reached out to us, the Immigrants’ Assistance Center. They [gave] us a contract for two years to go there and work specifically with kids coming in from Central America, specifically the unaccompanied youth.
We did that for two years. The AMIGOS (A Multilingual International Guidance Outreach Service) Program was very successful. After the two years, New Bedford Public Schools did not have the funding anymore. I said, “There’s no way we’re going to leave. We are going to fundraise around this program, because we understand the impact that this program has.” So we were able to get certain foundations to help fund the program.
NBL: How has it developed since then?
HDH: We’ve always known the mental health component of the trauma these kids have lived through. In the back of my mind, I was always looking for a Spanish-speaking therapist. Somebody who had gone through the immigrant experience, which is very hard to find.
We hired a Spanish-speaking therapist last year. She’s an immigrant from Nicaragua. … We have been getting a lot of referrals from Roosevelt Middle School. So we really work with Roosevelt and New Bedford High, and specifically with the unaccompanied youth. The relationship with the therapist is so important because we’re seeing these kids that have gone through trauma and we’re able to connect them to the therapist.
NBL: How did the pandemic affect the work you and IAC were able to do?
HDH: During COVID, we never left the building. We were considered essential services. I said: “We’re not going anywhere. Our building is closed. What are we going to do with 4,000 square feet? We have a lot of social distancing. We’re going to stay in the building. People might not be able to see us, but they’re going to know we’re in the building, because we are going to provide everything on the phone.” So we got 10,000 calls per month … A lot of people lost their jobs and needed to learn how to navigate and apply for unemployment. Everything is done in English. Everything was with technology. So helping people over the phone to apply for unemployment benefits and helping them apply for food stamps, helping apply for programs that meet their basic needs, was so important.
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Then, with the vaccine, I was meeting every week with the Department of Public Health and Health Equity to find out everything about testing and COVID-19 numbers. I’m also a trustee for Southcoast Health … Once the vaccine became available, we partnered with churches, making sure that we brought the vaccine through the mobile van into the churches. We were making appointments for people because people can’t use links if they have technology barriers. We were having vaccines here at the Immigrants’ Assistance Center in the parking lot … and making sure to intentionally bring doctors who look like the community that needs to know about the vaccine.
Seventeen hundred people got vaccinated with our community partners. We partnered with fish houses to make sure that their employees were going to get tested and getting the vaccine.
NBL: When do you find time for yourself?
HDH: It’s challenging. … Many times, even though I have amazing staff, people want to talk to me if there’s a crisis. After they might spend five or 10 minutes, maybe longer, with me, then I can handhold them and pass the crisis on to a case manager. It’s very humbling, but it’s exhausting. When you’re in a crisis, you’re in need. There is no judging here. We’re just here to help everybody and anyone that we can. Sometimes it’s just listening. I always say if somebody comes in and they’re crying, and by the time they leave they have a smile on their face and I’ve put together a plan for them, then I have done my job.
NBL: 39 years at the IAC is an amazing career. Do you have any plans to retire?
HDH: This is a question I get asked a lot. People do not retire from missions, and this is my mission. I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon. Because what am I going to do? As long as I’m healthy and I have the capacity to come and help, I can’t see myself going anywhere else. This organization is so much a part of who I am that I can’t disconnect myself from it. … I feel like I’ve never worked a day in my life. Working here is not a job. … I do feel very, very humbled and very privileged and honored that I can serve this community.
Email Rachel Wachman at rachel@newbedfordlight.org
I always knew Helena was wonderful but I never knew just how wonderful. Thank you Helena. Your father is so proud and the rest of us are so grateful.❤️❤️❤️
What a community treasure Helena Marques DaSilva is.
The people she has helped are countless, but there is note doubt that she and the IAC have had and continue to have an enormous impact on these families.
I would like to modify my previous comment to correct Helena’s name to Helena DaSilva Hughes. My apologies.